[1] The island is named for Canadian businessperson and politician James Alexander Lougheed.

On April 14, 1993, Environment Canada revoked a permit issued to Panarctic Oils Ltd. to dispose of 400 tonnes of scrap metal in the ocean off Lougheed Island.

The decision was taken in response to concerns expressed by residents of Grise Fiord, Resolute, Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet.

Instead of disposing of the material at sea, a research project was initiated to evaluate the environmental impact of stockpiling scrap metal on Lougheed Island.

In 1994, Larry Newitt of the Geological Survey of Canada and Charles Barton of the Australian Geological Survey Organization established a temporary magnetic observatory on Lougheed Island, close to the predicted position of the North Magnetic Pole, in order to monitor short-term fluctuations of the Earth's magnetic field.